Driving News

Ride-hailing apps like those of Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc are expected to alter the state of car ownership towards subscription-based services and shared ownership, auto industry experts said at a conference on Wednesday. At the annual Collision Conference in Toronto, speakers said ride-hailing apps are also set to play a role in testing automation for safety. “Your phone will be your car,” said Andre Haddad, CEO of Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing company that enables users to rent their cars out to others. Haddad said that while car sales have never been higher globally, people are realizing that owning a vehicle is increasingly becoming unaffordable due to car payments, insurance, and parking.

Most people realize that services like Facebook and Google are double dipping into their data. But many people wouldn’t expect that kind of behavior from their cars. Yet the fine print of most purchase and lease agreements allows today’s cars to devour data and pass it back to carmakers without making it available to consumers.

“From a technology perspective, many of the building blocks are already in-place for cars to connect to the smart home; however, ensuring a simple, intuitive, easy-to-use interface is critical for a non-distracted driving experience,” said Brian Brackenbury, Director, Connected Products, Gentex Corporation. “While voice has made some great strides forward, the automobile environment has factors like road noise, fellow passengers, and noisy kids that don’t always make voice the right choice for a user interface. Aggregating the fragmented services into a simple, one-touch interface, like HomeLink Connect, will ensure the end user gets something they can actually use every day, in all conditions!”